Larkin
A masculine name derived from the English surname meaning "brave little fellow".
Name Census estimates that about 3,511 living Americans carry the first name Larkin. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 55.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Larkin today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Larkin births was 2018 (155 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Larkin. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Larkin with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Larkin started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Larkin sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 97,623 Americans
Peak year
2018
155 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,973
Tracked since 1880
Census
Larkin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,969 people with the first name Larkin, which placed it at #5,688 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,688
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
2,969 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Larkin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Larkin is White at 84.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.8%) and Black (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Larkin described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Larkin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.4% · 2,506
- Two or more races4.8% · 143
- Black or African American4.6% · 137
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 129
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 39
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Larkin
Larkin is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 4,463 total registrations, 2,486 (55.7%) were male and 1,977 (44.3%) were female.
Larkin as a male name
- Ranked #2,973 in 2024
- 42 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (64 births)
Larkin as a female name
- Ranked #3,535 in 2024
- 44 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (115 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Larkin on both sides of the split. Of the 2,975 people counted with this name, 1,265 were male (42.5%) and 1,710 were female (57.5%).
Popularity
Larkin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Larkin from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,198 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Larkin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Larkin by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Larkin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Larkins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. Ohio, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Larkin, while Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 42 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Larkin
The name Larkin is an English surname that originated as a diminutive form of the male given name Lawrence. Its roots can be traced back to the Latin name Laurentius, which was derived from the Roman surname Laurentum, meaning "from Laurentum," an ancient city located near Rome. The name Lawrence itself is believed to have been a Greek translation of the Latin name.
Larkin gained popularity as a given name in its own right during the Middle Ages, particularly in England and Ireland. It was commonly used as a diminutive form of Lawrence or as a separate name with a similar meaning. The earliest known record of the name Larkin dates back to the 13th century in England.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Larkin was Larkin Chace (1631-1718), an English-born American settler and landowner in colonial Rhode Island. He was among the founding settlers of Warwick, Rhode Island, and played a significant role in the colony's early development.
Another historical figure with the name Larkin was Larkin Goldsmith Mead (1835-1915), an American sculptor and artist who was particularly known for his public monuments and statues. He was responsible for creating notable works such as the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and the Statue of Liberty's pedestal in New York City.
In the literary world, Larkin Goldsmith Mead (1896-1963) was an American writer and poet who gained recognition for his works during the Harlem Renaissance. He was a prominent figure in the African American literary community and contributed to several influential publications of the time.
One of the most renowned individuals named Larkin was Philip Larkin (1922-1985), an English poet, novelist, and librarian. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the 20th century and is known for his poignant and often melancholic works that explored themes of everyday life, mortality, and the complexities of human relationships.
Another notable figure was James Larkin (1876-1947), an Irish trade union leader and socialist activist who played a significant role in the labor movement in Ireland and Britain. He was a prominent figure in the Dublin Lockout of 1913, a major industrial dispute that had a lasting impact on workers' rights and the labor movement in Ireland.
People
Larkin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Larkin as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Larkin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Larkin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,511 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Larkin going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 97,623 US residents.
Is Larkin a common name?
We classify Larkin as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,463 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Larkin most popular?
The single biggest year for Larkin was 2018, when 155 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Larkin is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Larkin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,969 people with the name Larkin, or 0.98 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,688 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Larkin in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Larkin?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Larkin on both sides of the split. Of the 2,975 people counted with this name, 1,265 were male (42.5%) and 1,710 were female (57.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Larkin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Larkin is White at 84.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.8%) and Black (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Larkin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Larkin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.4% (2,506 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Larkin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Larkin a male name?
Yes, 55.7% of people registered as Larkin in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Larkin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Larkin in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Larkin can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Larkin?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Larkin at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.